Harland recovers to reach final

By Tom Knight

12:01AM GMT 18 Nov 2006

Britain's Georgina Harland survived a nervous start in the shooting to qualify for today's world championships final in Guatemala.

Harland, the Olympic bronze medallist at the 2000 Athens Games, managed only 155 out of a possible 200 points, but recovered to score well in the fencing and swimming and then ran a good 3,000 metres to finish 14th of the 16 pentathletes in her qualifying group.

Harland, 28, has been a full-time, Lottery-funded pentathlete since 1999, and aims to win a medal at the 2008 Olympics. But with only two British places available to go to Beijing, she must fight off the challenge of Mhairi Spence and Katy Livingstone, the sport's two rising stars.

Spence, 21, the world junior silver medallist, and Livingstone, 22, also qualified for the final, held in the capital, Guatemala City.

With only four of the five disciplines contested during qualifying, Spence said she was pleased to have finished well to qualify in 10th place in her group. "It was a tough day and I didn't feel totally in the groove at any stage. I'm glad I finished strongly in the run because on lap two there seemed a lot of people running me down."

The altitude has been a problem for some teams; the Italians suffered when one of their athletes collapsed and another dropped out during the 3,000m run.